Discover Music

Less Driving Could Impact Transportation Policies

By Phil Gregory, WBGO News
Trenton. May 14, 2013

A new report by the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group finds more Americans are leaving the driving to others.

The report shows that the number of miles driven in the U.S. is down for the eighth year.

NJPIRG state director Jen Kim says the biggest decline is among 16-to-34 year- olds who want to live in urban and walkable neighborhoods and are more open to using public transit.

She expects that trend to continue and have an impact on government priorities for transportation infrastructure.

“We don’t need to spend as much on things like roads and highways and should instead switch to things like bike lanes, more public transportation options, buses, trains.”

Kim says a continued reduction in driving will have an impact on the states major source of transportation funding.

“As people drive less and less and purchase less gas then the gas tax funding which traditionally is used to fund roads is going to drop as much as 74 percent. So we definitely need to find more sources of funding for transit and make sure that’s a priority so we can have sustainable transit funding for the future.”

Newark Today

A monthly, one-hour, live call-in program focusing on social, economic and political topics pertaining to Newark.

On this month's edition of Newark Today we are joined by Tonya R. Bryan Executive Director of Newark Emergency Services For Families, Julienne Cherry with the Community Foodbank of New Jersey, and Dr. Janice Johnson-Dias President of the Grassroots Community Foundation, to talk about feeding and housing the homeless and food insecure populations this holiday season.

Conversations with Allan Wolper

David Rozenholc is the tenant lawyer who took on Donald Trump in one of the most famous cases in New York City real estate history. Rozenholc prevented Trump's wrecking ball from demolishing a building and evicting the tenants from their apartments at 100 Central Park South now called Trump Parc East. Crain's Business called Rozenholc a lawyer that powerful landlords and developers dread facing in court.

SportsJam with Doug Doyle

Dan Silna and his brother Ozzie made mega millions in a deal they made as their Spirits of St. Louis ABA franchise was left out of the NBA merger in 1976. The philanthropist talks about his ownership days, the deal and his passions including an upcoming panel discussion called "Lessons From the Munich Olympics" moderated by his former play-by-play man Bob Costas.